How To Save A Life
by StarWarrior72
Summary: Anakin made all the right choices in what should have been the end of the Clone Wars, but the Jedi's uncompromising old-fashioned rules separated Anakin from his children, who were made to become Jedi, and his wife, who was banished to the Outer Rim. Now someone has snuck poison into the food given to the Jedi younglings, and Anakin has a chance to find his children.


Anakin looked down at the register again. _Not a student in the Temple who avoided the poison. I hope none of them are too badly hurt, but this means…_ he tried to cut himself off from the thought, but it came anyway, _At least this means I know where my children are._

_I shouldn't go to the hospital. Only Yoda and Obi-Wan know that they're mine, but if they put two and two together, I could easily be kept from them forever._

He looked up at the wall of his chamber again, then back down at the register._ I'm supposed to be teaching lightsaber dueling for two more hours, but with all the children in the hospital, I can't. I could claim that I was just visiting my students._

Another glance at the register and he nodded to himself,_ I don't even know which ones are my children. All I know is that the girl's name is Leia, and that she has brown eyes, and her brother is Luke, and he— wouldn't open his eyes for me. Even if I do see them, I probably won't know. Yoda severed my connection to the twins, but perhaps they'll sense me. Maybe my presence will even… comfort them. I'm sure Obi-Wan, at least, would understand that I need to be near them._

He stood up, stuffing the register into a pocket and collecting his lightsaber. _Maybe I can help with healing._

He left his room, silently sending a prayer to the Force that no one would question his presence in the med-center. Surely they would all be too busy to question a little extra help.

He brushed past Obi-Wan, who was heading in the opposite direction.

"Hello, Anakin."

"Master," he replied quickly, itching to get to the hospital before his better judgement came to light.

"Are you going to check on the younglings?"

He bowed his head slightly, "Yes."

"Are you hoping to find your children?"

There was no admonishment in his voice, so Anakin nodded, "Of course."

"You won't know them."

"I know. I'm hoping they might know me, though," he answered. _As long as I'm going to jeopardize my entire future, I may as well be completely honest._

Obi-Wan nodded slowly, "They may."

"Do you know who they are, Master?"

Obi-Wan shook his head, "Yoda handed them over to a scout who had collected Jedi children from a number of human families. I'm not certain even he knows who they are."

Anakin sighed, "I suppose their names were changed?"

"Have you ever noticed them on the register?"

"No," Anakin said.

"I'll come with you, if you'd like," Obi-Wan offered gently.

Anakin nodded, "That would be very kind."

Obi-Wan fell into step beside him, "We haven't spoken much lately. How have you been managing with teaching?"

"It's been," he faltered, "All right."

"You never were cut out for teaching. But you must understand Yoda's caution."

Anakin shrugged noncommittally, "I suppose. But with Padmé heaven knows where, I don't think we'd have any problems. I just wish…"

"I know you wish Padmé hadn't been sent away. Anakin, your attachment was dangerous to the whole order. Especially with the ongoing attacks, we need all our Jedi fully focused on the war effort."

"Right. Because teaching a bunch of kids to be killed is clearly what's right."

Obi-Wan stopped, resting a hand on Anakin's shoulder, "These children will be trained when this war is over."

Anakin shrugged his hand away, opening the door to the hospital, displaying a room full of ill children.

"They'll be trained if any of them survive."

A nearby young rodian retched miserably and cried for his mother, who swept down on him.

"Are all those people?" Anakin asked, startled.

"Their parents. Children are deciding they don't want to be Jedi, and it's only right to return them to their parents. Parents are also demanding to have their children returned to them. We've let them in here so we can finish treating the children before sending them home."

Anakin blinked around at the hospital. Every bed was full, and the floor was coated in little cots, each holding the small form of a Jedi child.

"Have you been able to send _any_ of them home yet?"

Obi-Wan gently pried a child's hand off of his robes. The little boy blinked up at him and wailed softly and a father came running. Anakin felt a twinge of jealousy as the man scooped up his child and rocked him carefully.

"No," he whispered under the boy's sobs, "We haven't been able to."

Anakin stared around again. The room was filled with healers and parents carefully maneuvering around the cots. Except for one small corner, where only a single medic stood, carefully helping one of the children back into bed.

"Why don't those children have their parents with them?"

Obi-Wan turned to Anakin in shock, "You think you're the only Jedi to ever have children?"

"Well… yes."

"No. We usually expel Jedi who reproduce, but the war has forced us to allow them to stay, as long as they're willing to cut ties with the children and the other parent."

"Oh," Anakin said softly, staring off at the sad little abandoned island of cots, most of which were on the floor.

"I'll let you go to them alone."

Obi-Wan walked away in the direction of the lead healer, apparently looking for instructions. Anakin began a trudge to the children.

As he neared, the healer leapt to her feet, "You're here to take care of the children? Oh, thank you, I really need the sleep."

She dashed off before he could tell her that that wasn't really why he was there at all.

Anakin walked into the cots and watched as one of the children cried out helplessly and sniffled.

_They couldn't think to tell us that our children are hurting?_ He thought with great frustration. He looked down at them, all shivering and looking miserable, several crying for their parents._ My children are… five. A boy and a girl. Both small when weighed at birth. Brown eyes for the girl._

He finally spotted a little boy curled up at the edge of the pool of loneliness, crying helplessly. Beside him lay a girl of the same age, her back turned on the room, staring at the wall. The boy gave another wail and the girl flinched.

_My children?_

The boy wailed again. Anakin knelt down next to him and gently put a hand in his hair. Instantly, the girl whipped around.

"Get away from him!"

The boy sobbed and buried his face against Anakin's knee.

Anakin lifted the sobbing child, who clung to him tightly, clearly just needing the attention.

"Put Damien _down_!" she shrieked, slapping Anakin.

"Wanna stay!" Chris wailed.

The girl had met Anakin's eyes, though, and he saw that they were brown.

_They're the right age. Both of them are a little bit small for their ages. The girl has brown eyes, and brown hair, which makes sense as well. And the boy has blonde hair, which would also make sense, he still won't look me in the eye, though._

Anakin cradled the helpless boy closer, and the girl he thought was Leia crawled closer and put her head on his knee, seeming to give into illness and loneliness for a moment.

"What's your name?" Anakin asked.

"Christa," the girl answered.

That was when one of the other parentless younglings seemed to notice that there was someone sitting amongst them, holding them. He crawled onto Anakin's lap as well, pressing against the Jedi's chest.

The rest seemed to catch on very quickly. Before Anakin knew what was happening, the sick children were pressing against him on every side. As still another whimpering body threw itself into his arms, Anakin tried to get more comfortable on the floor.

_They all need a parent, not just my own children. They all need someone to hold them._ He gathered them closer, trying to make all of them feel safe and wanted.

_Who could poison so many children? What kind of _monster_ did this?_

Suddenly, one of the children retched, and Anakin had to use the Force to escort her to the garbage can before she vomited. The entire room was suddenly filled with the same miserable sounds, and Anakin heard tests being run on the children, heard doctor's voices getting panicked.

"What's going on?" he called as he was forced to send another child retching into the disposal unit.

"Anyone who's not healing, OUT!" Obi-Wan's distinctive voice echoed over a loudspeaker. Anakin carefully protected the little cluster of children from the stampede that raced for the doors, eager to allow the healers to work with their children.

Anakin stared as the healers raced around to the cots, tending to children. Two healers ran to the group of parentless younglings Anakin was guarding and wrenched a couple of the children from his grasp, trying to help them. But the cots had been set up a long way from the healing technology, and they couldn't help but admit that the only thing that could be done for the children was to hold them, as Anakin had.

Anakin stared at the children being treated. Each time they managed to keep one from being ill, they would push him or her out into the hallway to return to their parents and be miserable out of the way.

"When will they get to these children?" he asked one of the other healers.

"As soon as they can! It only makes sense to treat the younglings closer to the machines first!" a frantic looking Padawan answered.

Anakin looked down at Damien, who he was quite certain was really Luke, who was still clinging desperately to his tunic, although he looked quite ill.

"Don't wanna die," he whimpered.

Anakin silently cradled him closer. He used the Force to search deep into the little boy's body, down into his stomach, carefully searching for the source of the illness. The boy in his arms whimpered again, nearly breaking his concentration. He searched deeper, found a cure hidden in the boy's immune system, and pulled it through, forcing the poison into oblivion.

Immediately, Luke gave another little whimper and Anakin pulled his consciousness out of the boy to see him blinking, and not looking green at all anymore.

Anakin also found that he could sense Luke much better than he had been able to. Well enough to know who he was.

The Padawan healer stared at him in amazement, "How did you do that? I can't sense his illness at all anymore!"

"It's not an illness," Anakin explained quickly, taking Leia in his arms and reaching into her body to find the poison, "They've all been poisoned. His immune system held the cure bottled up, and I only hope the others do as well."

He found it in Leia's system and set her down.

The Padawan gaped another moment before taking another child and reaching into their system. Anakin blinked at his daughter for just long enough to realize that she was in fact his daughter, and then turned around, taking a third child.

Hours later, Anakin sat in a small circle of healed Jedi children, his own two seeming to have sensed their connection, and staying close by his side.

"Finally," he said, setting the last child down to run to her father, "Done."

Luke crawled into Anakin's arms, and Leia stood close by his knees, apparently nervous about accepting his care.

Obi-Wan staggered through the room, which was filling with parents and children collecting their few belongings that they'd brought to the hospital.

"We have a problem, Anakin."

Anakin, who had just allowed himself to lie down, stared up at his master, bug-eyed, "Another one? Already?"

"Most of the younglings have just decided that they want to go home, and been introduced to their parents. They can't be Jedi now."

"Master?"

"Yes?"

Anakin closed his eyes, "Quite frankly? I don't care. I have my kids, and I've had it with being a Jedi. This whole war has become massively a matter of killing, no ideals whatsoever. I'm taking my kids and going to find Padmé."

Obi-Wan stared down at him, "Anakin, you can't possibly leave now."

Anakin heaved himself to his feet, taking a child in each arm.

"Watch me."

"This is really the worst possible time to have chosen," Obi-Wan said.

"I'll let you know when I'm ready to join you again. I just… I need some time to sort out my family, and for the Jedi to re-evaluate their standards on children's relationships with their parents."

Obi-Wan could only stare as Anakin walked out of the hospital wing, carrying the twins who had been taken from their parents at birth.

"Well," he said, "That could have gone better."


End file.
